STRAHLENBERG, Philipp Johann von. An Historico-Geographical Description of the North and Eastern Part of Europe and Asia; but more particularly of Russia, Siberia, and Great Tartary; both in their Ancient and Modern State … Written originally in High Ger…

A Swedish POW in Siberia

STRAHLENBERG, Philipp Johann von. An Historico-Geographical Description of the North and Eastern Part of Europe and Asia; but more particularly of Russia, Siberia, and Great Tartary; both in their Ancient and Modern State … Written originally in High German. Now faithfully translated into English. London, W. Innys and R. Manby. 1738.

4to. Contemporary full sprinkled calf, gilt red morocco lettering-piece to spine; pp. [4], ix, [3], 463, large engraved folding map (640 x 960 mm), hand-coloured in outline and paper-backed at the time, fold-out map, 9 engraved plates (2 folding), large folding woodcut map, very large folding comparative linguistic table, head and tail of spine a little worn, as well as rubbing to extremities, small marginal trace of worming to inside of lower cover, rear flyleaf and the final three printed leaves, title with very faint spotting, otherwise a remarkable, clean, and fresh copy; eighteenth-century ownership inscription of George Bouwman to verso of large map, contemporary ownership inscription of James S. George at head of the first page of the main text.

Second English edition, a reprint of the first, of this ambitious geographical, historical, ethnographic, linguistic, and antiquarian work on the northern and eastern territories of the Russian Empire, written by a Swedish officer after over a decade of captivity in Siberia.

Philip Johan von Strahlenberg (né Philip Johan Tabbert, 1676–1747) was taken captive by the Russians after the 1708 Battle of Poltava and was detained for some thirteen years in Siberia. During his time in Tobolsk (1711–1721) he was able to explore vast stretches of eastward land and compile material for the present work, one of the most important sources of historical, geographical, and ethnographic information about Siberia and beyond. The present work was first published as Das Nord- und Ostliche Theil von Europa und Asia and was translated into English in 1736. The numerous illustrations depict antiquities as well as numerous alphabets; the present work was the first to reproduce the Udmurt alphabet in print. Strahlenberg also provides a comparative table of thirty-two dialects as well as a substantial Kalmyk–Mongolian vocabulary.

The map, which had been published separately in 1730 in Stockholm, would remain the most accurate for decades to come; it is rarely found coloured.

Cordier 2713; Cox I, 194; ESTC T100339.

SKU: 2110746